Fire and Frost
by edessacarrick
Summary: Aurora Kadis was a hot-tempered Imperial Agent, until she was transferred to Csilla to work for the Chiss Ascendancy. Through the influence of various Chiss, can Aurora learn to overcome her anger, her hate of all aliens, and her aggressivness? Will she ever be able to again prove her worth to the Empire? Set in the Old Republic. Rated T for violence and possible thematic content.
1. Prologue

**Togg Station, Hutta**

According to the Intel gathered by Imperial Intelligence, Togg Station was a Republic medical facility, one of those tucked away places where scientists and biomedical researchers bottled themselves up and attempted to discover and create what no one else could or would. It was the kind of facility where psychos with doctorates tried to make good on bizarre proposals that other medical professionals disposed of as pure trash compactor waste.

Normally the Empire didn't care about Republic whackjobs performing scientific experiments, especially ones who lived on backwater slime worlds like Hutta and worked on programs that weren't even sanctioned by the Republic. But Togg Station was different. And Imperial Intelligence could always be counted upon to investigate when something this irregular reared its ugly head.

The procedure was simple enough in theory: bypass the Station's security, plant charges in the main power room, and then get out before the whole place became just another ugly crater on Hutta's pockmarked surface.

But in Agent Twenty-two's experience, she knew that even a relatively simple mission with an equally uncomplicated procedure theory could easily go awry.

_But they don't hire us to take on the easy jobs. That's for infantry._

Aurora Kadis, or Agent Twenty-two as she was known to her colleagues and superiors, stayed as close to the shadows as she could. Bypassing the Station's main security had been easy enough. The trick was staying completely out of the staff's sight, at least until it was too late for them to stop her.

Easier said than done. Togg Station was literally _crawling_ with doctors, researchers, scientists, aides, and medical droids all rushing from one laboratory to the next with stacks of datapads and vials of who knows what clutched in their hands. Already it had taken Aurora ten standard minutes just to get down to the second level. The sheer number of staff members she had to keep avoiding greatly lengthened the time it took to get to the main power generator, and it wasn't improving her temper either.

Aurora peeked around a corner and almost breathed a sigh of relief. There was the main door to the power generator, and it was completely unguarded.

"Watcher Six, I have the generator room in my sights," Aurora murmured into the miniature, skin colored microphone attached to her throat. "No guards, only a keypad."

"Just because there are no visible guards doesn't mean that there aren't any traps inside, Twenty-two," came Watcher Six's disembodied voice through her earpiece. "Proceed with caution. And remember what Keeper said."

Aurora rolled her eyes and barely managed to hold back a dissenting grumble. Keeper was adamant that this operation had to be fast and silent. No gunplay, no charging straight through the halls, no unnecessary fighting, blah, blah, blah. This was the one part about being an Imperial Agent that Aurora absolutely despised. Sneaking around just wasn't her thing. She preferred to kick the front door down and walk straight in with guns blazing. That was more fun than creeping through the shadows in absolute silence, praying that your computer spike worked and that all of the security cameras were offline. At least her way, everybody who would try to report her would all be dead and then she could just blow up the facility in her own sweet time.

Unfortunately, neither Keeper, the Watchers, nor the Minister of Intelligence seemed to understand that.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Aurora muttered as she jogged quietly across the hallway.

The door leading into the generator room was the inset type, ensconced deeply into the wall with a keypad beside it. That would be helpful just in case someone walked by. Of course, it was also bad because she could easily be boxed in there by anybody with a rifle.

"Accessing keypad," Watcher Six said to nobody in particular.

Sometimes Aurora wondered if the Watchers liked giving running commentaries of everything they did. Then again, those guys were so heavily programmed that they probably were beyond caring about anything except their jobs. Even so, Watchers were often very handy to have around, though their droning monotones sometimes drove even the most professional of Cipher Agents crazy.

"Access granted. Bioscans show up negative. Proceed."

A light on the keypad flashed green and the door snapped open. Aurora glanced over her shoulder at the hallway behind her, hoping that no one had heard the door opening, but there was no one around. She quickly ducked into the generator room, sidearm drawn just in case anyone was inside the room. Just because a Watcher said that the Bioscans had turned up negative didn't mean that there wasn't somebody inside who had figured out a way to trick Imperial scanners. Besides, it didn't ever hurt to be cautious.

The Bioscans were right this time. The room was completely empty except for the huge main power generator plopped dead center on the floor a few feet ahead of her. Aurora almost laughed and groaned at the same time. The generator was a big, hulking giant of a thing and it groaned and crackled like an old lady creaking her way out of bed in the morning. It was also obviously second-hand. Many of the plates were bent at the corners, the bolts were coated in orange rust, and it even had a strange stench swirling around it.

_The Republic must be incredibly cheap if they settled for this piece of archaic junk._

"Please detach the six concussive charges from your belt and place them at regular intervals along the base of the generator," Water Six began.

"I took explosives classes, Watcher Six," Aurora interrupted with barely controlled aggravation. "I know what I'm doing."

"As you wish," the Watcher droned back impassively.

Muttering darkly under her breath, Aurora plucked the six concussive charges Procurement had given her off of her utility belt and began attaching and wiring them around the base of the monstrous generator. Setting up the explosives made her temper improve a little, but she was still irked.

_This wouldn't be so bad if I could just shoot the place up and then blow the generator without all of this sneaking around. But, no, Keeper says this has to be a "quiet" mission. If he wants it so quiet, then why am I blowing this building up, huh? Answer _that_, Keeper!_

She was so focused on her mental ranting that she almost didn't notice that she had unconsciously finished wiring up all of the explosives. Pushing her irked thoughts towards the back of her mind for now, Aurora flipped up the panel on the main charge, revealing the timer inside. She set the charges to blow in five standard minutes. That should give her enough time to get out of the Station and far enough away to avoid being blown up along with everybody else here. Being blown up would definitely put a damper on the rest of her day, she thought with a wry smile.

Syncing the charge timer with her vambrace-mounted chrono, Aurora flipped the timer panel down and walked back out of the generator room.

"You can lock the door, Watcher Six. I'm walking out," the Agent informed her ever-present supervisor.

"Copy that, Twenty-two."

As the generator room's main doors slid shut behind her, Aurora realized that she had two options for getting out of this building. One way involved sneaking back to the front door and possibly getting blown up if it took her too long. The other way involved just walking straight through the hallways like a normal person, getting spotted, and maybe having a chance to put her blasters to good use.

She decided on the latter.

It wasn't until she had just reached the first floor that the Station's staff noticed her. There was a brief second or two of shocked silence before the screaming started.

Instantly the majority of the doctors began scrambling away as fast as their legs could carry them, yelling at the others to run and save the research before the nasty little Imperial could get her hands on it. One of the researchers reached into his white lab coat, fumbling for the holdout blaster he had hidden there. Aurora reacted so fast that the man was flat on his back with a smoking blaster hole through his chest before he had time to draw.

"Twenty-two, what is going on?" Watcher Six demanded over the Agent's earpiece. "Is that screaming?"

Aurora opened her mouth to respond when a blue laser bolt singed the top of her head. She dropped and rolled over her shoulder, firing on the Duros who had managed to unholster his gun. He dropped like a Crunchbug into a Hutt's mouth.

"Twenty-two, _what_ is going on?" Watcher Six's usual monotone was on the verge of completely falling apart, and that was never a good sign.

"I'm just getting out of the Station," Aurora snapped back as she continued to fire on a group of doctors who were attempting to charge her. "Just relax, ok?"

One of the doctors, a female Zabrak, managed to evade the Agent's shots. She lunged at Aurora with a vibroscalpel, yelling,

"Imperial dog! Take _this!_"

Aurora jumped back to avoid the buzzing medical blade. The Zabrak growled and swung the vibroscalpel at the Agent's head. Ducking the instrument, Aurora whipped her blaster up and fired pointblank into the doctor's gut. A smoking hole burned through the other woman's stomach as the red laser beam went straight through her. She gasped in shock before her eyes rolled back and she crashed in a jumble at Aurora's feet.

Stepping over the corpse with a look of indifferent arrogance, Aurora continued walking towards the exit. Aliens were such a loathsome breed, even those who looked basically Human. Zabraks definitely looked very much like Humans, but as far as Aurora and the Empire were concerned all aliens were inferior creatures who had to be controlled by those who were superior, namely the Human species. It felt good to be able to put an alien in its place or to even put it down permanently.

_If anyone's the dog, it's _you_, Zabrak._

Five or six of the staff were sprawled on the floor and the rest had fled, probably to regroup. Aurora dropped the half-used battery pack out of the butt of her handgun and snapped in a fresh pack with practiced ease. The click sound of a new battery pack snapping into position was a sound that any soldier or Agent quickly learned to appreciate. That click meant more ammunition and a better chance of survival.

Suddenly, Aurora became aware that Watcher Six was still talking to her, and he didn't sound all that pleased.

"…were ordered to use caution, Twenty-two," he was saying.

"And I used it until it was necessary," Aurora growled as she walked towards the Station's main doors. "Look, just lay off—"

"You!"

Aurora stopped in mid-stride, turning around to see a tall, white-coated Kel Dor marching towards her. Livid was quite an understatement. He looked so enraged that the tips of his breathing apparatus were practically trembling in barely controlled anger. He looked fit to kill…or to be killed.

"You're an Imperial! You're the one who killed my researchers!" The Kel Dor shouted accusingly.

"Dr. Keil, no!" A Human doctor peeking around a nearby corner called nervously. "She's an Agent of the Empire. She'll kill you!"

"Smart guy." Aurora nodded, brushing pretend dust off of the top of her handgun to show her boredom.

"Twenty-two, get out of there now," Watcher Six ordered in a no-nonsense tone. "You will obey Keeper's orders whether you like it or not. Evacuate immediately."

"Go jump in a Sarlacc Pit, Six."

Before the Watcher could respond, Aurora turned off her earpiece and throat mic with a quick click of her molars. The last thing she wanted was the nosy Watcher telling her what to do or, even worse, giving him the chance to activate her keyword. One word was all it took to control her, and if she kept her earpiece on Keeper or any other Watcher could easily breathe that word and bam! No more free will, no chance to kill another alien before the building exploded.

Besides, this Kel Dor wasn't just any old doctor. He was Dr. Jikare Kiel, the head honcho of this medical facility. He was the one who had come up with the crazy Sith-destroying-nanovirus proposal that the Republic had refused to fund, and now he was daring to stand up to a highly trained Imperial Agent. No, Aurora was not going to let any stickler Watcher or Keeper take this opportunity away from her.

"What do you want, alien? I don't have all day," she demanded.

"You think I'm just going to let you walk in here, kill my staff, and then walk out?" Dr. Keil shouted. "If you do, then you are hopelessly naïve. How you found out about us and the nanovirus, I don't know, but I do know that I will not let you or anyone else destroy what we have created! The Republic would not sanction us, and I will not allow some Imperial puppet to destroy everything we have built and fostered here. I am no fighter, but I vow I will kill you where you stand! And then Project Devastation will continue, and with this virus we will bring your Empire to its knees by destroying the Sith Order. You will fall, and you will never get back up again!"

_That seemed a little too well prepared for a spur-of-the-moment speech. He must've been planning what he was going to say just in case he ever did catch someone in here. Or he's just as crazy as his file says he is._

Aurora glanced at her chrono jadedly. Exactly two standard minutes until the main generator would explode. That would be more than enough time to take out this loudmouthed Republic doctor before the whole Station exploded over her head.

"I guess I have time to engage in some gunplay." She shrugged. "Bring your worst, alien."

A roar escaped the Kel Dor's respirator as he hurled himself at the Agent. He swung punches left and right at her. And he was fast, faster than he originally appeared to be, anyway. Aurora grunted as Dr. Keil's orange fist smashed into her gut and then smacked up hard under her chin. She stumbled backwards, hurriedly wiping at the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

Dr. Keil swung his fist again, but this time Aurora caught his arm and flipped him over her shoulder. He hit the floor flat on his back with a grunt. Aurora reached for her blaster to finish him off when he suddenly sliced at her ankles with his forearm. Up went her legs and she crashed shoulder first onto the hard metal floor. Something cracked, but Aurora was too far gone with adrenalin to notice it.

The doctor scrambled to his feet. Aurora tried to get up but he stomped savagely on her gut. The Imperial gasped and suddenly found herself clutching at every spare whisp of oxygen she could find, desperately trying to regain her breath as Dr. Keil pressed his foot down harder into her stomach. He clenched his fist tightly, pulling it back and ready to beat her to death.

Grabbing one last gasp of air, Aurora smacked a button on her right vambrace and swung that arm up just as Dr. Keil let his heavy fist drop towards her face. A thin vibroblade exploded out of Aurora's wrist and punched straight through the doctor's torso. There was no time for him to dodge. The Human was in too close for him to have avoided the plunging vibroblade.

With a grunt, Aurora kicked the alien doctor in the chest, sending him flying off of her knife and skidding across the floor on his back. She slowly stood back up, still trying to catch her breath. Dr. Keil lay on the ground gasping in agonized shock and clutching at his wound. Bright green blood, like the color of juba juice, was spreading like a stain across his crisp, pristine lab coat and over his fingers. It was an interesting contrast, his green blood against his orange skin, but Aurora didn't bother to contemplate it.

Wiping the green blood off of her ejected vibroblade on a spare rag hanging off of her utility belt, the girl flipped her sweaty blonde bangs out of her eyes indifferently and walked unopposed out of the Station.

Ten seconds later Togg Station exploded in a huge red orange fireball, sending chunks of durasteel and who knows what flying in all directions. It was a spectacular explosion as far as Aurora was concerned. She only wished she had brought along a holorecorder so she could have recorded herself walking out of the building just as it blew up. It would have been a nice shot, worthy to have been inserted in even the best of action movies.

_Maybe next time…_

For now, she was just pleased that her mission had gone on so well. Now to get off of this grotesque Hutt world and back to the proper civilization of Dromund Kaas where there weren't aliens staring at her every time she turned around.

_Besides, Keeper may very well have another mission for me by the time I get back._


	2. Chapter 1: Twist of Fate

**Intelligence Bureau, Kaas City, Dromund Kaas**

The nice thing about being an Intelligence Agent was that Aurora never had to worry about parking. All Agents parked their ships, speeders, what have you in a private hangar at the back of the Intelligence Bureau. There were always spots open and, best of all, you never had to pay for parking. It was a simple sort of privilege, but free parking was just one of those perks that Aurora enjoyed about her job, right after being able to use explosives without any legal repercussions.

Aurora was in a good mood, and not even having to park at the very back of the hangar could sour it. Her mission had gone extraordinarily well, as far as she was concerned. Blast, the swift demolition of Togg Station might even be enough to secure a new promotion. There were reports floating around that Cipher Two had been killed not too long ago by some obscure Jedi Knight, and no doubt Imperial Intelligence was searching for a replacement.

_And that replacement should be me_, Aurora thought as she made her way towards her ship's exit door.

A quick press of the keypad popped the hatch open and let out the durasteel ramp. Sauntering down the ramp in a cocky sort of manner, Aurora almost didn't see the squad of men waiting for her on the ground, at least until she almost walked into the officer at the front.

"Hey! Watch where you're standing, would you?" Aurora exclaimed, pulling up short before she almost bumped into him.

"I am Sergeant Parkos Barr, personal aide to the Minister of Intelligence," the man explained bluntly.

"Good for you," Aurora retorted. "And I'm an Intelligence Operative. See you around sometime."

She attempted to walk away, but the Sergeant simply stepped in her way again. Aurora narrowed her green eyes up at him.

"Apparently you can't take a hint. Do I need to use a blaster, or are you just going to get out of my way on your own?" She demanded.

The not-so-subtle threat visibly unnerved the Sergeant a bit, but nonetheless he stood his ground. The man had guts, Aurora had to admit that.

"The Minister requests your presence in his office, Agent," he said.

"Well he's gonna have to wait. I just got back…"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but my orders were very clear. I am to escort you to the Minister's office immediately upon your arrival, and you are to comply forthwith."

Muttering darkly under her breath Aurora felt one of her gloved fists tighten. Couldn't the brass give her at least half an hour to shower or something before calling her in for a meeting?

"Fine, fine. Lead the way," she grumbled.

"This way, please, ma'am." Sergeant Barr gestured in the direction of the hangar door.

With Barr in the lead and the other six men in the squad hemming her in between them, Aurora walked across the hangar floor and into the main turbolift that lead to the other levels in the Intelligence Bureau. Once everyone was in the lift, Sergeant Barr selected the thirtieth level. Aurora stewed the whole way up to the thirtieth level, mentally ranting about superiors and their demands. Most likely the Minister only wanted to debrief her about the Togg Station mission, and that was a report he definitely could have waited for. There were other Agents who had currently finished more pressing operations than blowing up a facility of Republic kooks attempting to create a Sith-destroying nanovirus. The only reason the Empire even bothered to intervene with Dr. Keil's Project Devastation wasn't because it feared that those whackjob doctors could actually create a disease that would only destroy the Sith Order.

_We only got involved because the Republic wasn't doing anything about it. It was all a matter of principle. They won't control their people, so we will. I'm sure there are five or six Cipher Agents who have more important reasons to see the Minister than me._

The term "Cipher Agent" suddenly spun Aurora's thoughts in a one-eighty. Maybe the Minister of Intelligence was so eager to talk with her because he wanted her to take Cipher Two's spot on the operative roster. Maybe this was a promotion meeting, not a debriefing.

A blanket of warm happiness covered Twenty-two's original frustration. The thought of one day becoming a Cipher Agent was a goal that many Intelligence employees desired, though very few ever got that far. In fact, the whole reason why Aurora even agreed to become an Agent in the first place was so she could one day lose her name and identity to become a mysterious, anonymous Cipher Agent. And now that dream was going to come true! If this was what warm fuzzies felt like, Aurora never wanted the feeling to go away.

The rest of the turbolift ride was actually quite pleasant for the Human. Excitement was building up so fast in her chest that Aurora practically expected to see bubbles of euphoria floating around her. She kept her expressions stoic so none of the soldiers could guess what she was thinking, but Aurora was so energized that she didn't know how much longer she could compress it inside.

"Level Thirty," the lift's automated voice droned as the elevator slowed its ascent.

The double blast doors snapped open automatically, revealing the cold, stark interior of the Intelligence Bureau. From both the outside and the inside, the Bureau looked exactly the same: frozenly polished durasteel, thick lifeless ferrocrete, harsh white lights, and not a soft spot in sight. Even the chairs were stiff, demanding sitters to have spines as straight as a nerf herder's electroprod. The only visible decorations were the red and black Imperial flags that hung down from the ceilings like the dead animals that Tusken Raiders roasted over their fire pits. The Bureau was an interior decorator's nightmare, but it fulfilled its purpose of showing everyone just how coldly serious the Empire was when it came to security and Intelligence.

_Still, a nice splash of paint somewhere wouldn't hurt._

Aurora followed Sergeant Barr down the metal hallway, listening to her boots clunking metallically on the floor. The black armored soldiers still surrounded her in perfect escort formation but Aurora didn't care anymore.

_I'm going to get a promotion! Cipher Agent, here I come…_

The room at the very end of the hallway housed the Minister of Intelligence's main office. Two heavily armored soldiers had been posted on either side of the big blast doors. There were rumors that the Minister's security team was actually made up of potential Agents who hadn't passed their training, but no one knew if that was the truth or not. They were certainly elite enough to have been part of the Agent Training Program, but Aurora wasn't about to ask them about it.

As the party neared the doors, the two guardsmen clicked the safeties off of their rifles. It never hurt to be cautious.

"State your business," one of the soldiers ordered, stopping the party with his upraised hand.

"Sergeant Barr, bringing Imperial Agent Twenty-two for an audience with the Minister," Barr answered.

The soldier didn't respond for a moment, but by the slight cock of his head Aurora assumed that he was using his HUD to check the Sergeant's answer by the Minister's schedule. After a brief few seconds, the soldier straightened up and flicked his safety back on.

"You can go on in, ma'am," he said to Aurora. "The Minister's waiting for you."

The big double blast doors parted. Without even acknowledging her escort or the two guardsmen, Aurora walked into the office with an obvious swagger. And why not? After all, she was going to get promoted; there was no doubt of that.

The Minister of Intelligence was an important man who inhabited the highest rank a non-Force user could reach in the Empire, and as such he had an office the size of a Wampa's cave. Aurora felt dwarfed the moment she stepped inside, but she managed to shake off the feeling quickly enough.

Sitting behind a huge lapiz-inlaid desk was none other than the Minister himself. He was a man of average height with salt-and-pepper hair cropped into a true military buzz cut. His pale skin was pulled so tight over his frame that Aurora wondered if it might start cracking and breaking at any moment. Very few knew what his birth name was. As far as Aurora or any of the other Agents and Watchers were concerned, he was simply the Minister.

Aurora stepped right up to the desk and snapped to attention, curbing her bouncing excitement as best as she could. In only a few moments, she knew, she would be a Cipher Agent. All of her dreams were on the precipice of becoming fulfilled. It was hard to just stand there and wait for the confirmation.

"Agent Twenty-two reporting as ordered, sir," she barked out in true military fashion.

Slowly the Minister stood up, adjusting the crisp folds in his black officer's uniform. He clasped his long, bony hands behind his back and stared straight into Aurora's face. His gray eyes were so frigid that it almost felt like meeting the gaze of Death itself, but Aurora refused to look away. When he spoke, his voice was like Trandoshan claws scraping down a durasteel plate.

"I was informed by Keeper that your mission to Togg Station was successful."

"Yes, sir." Aurora nodded. "Everyone involved with Project Devastation is dead, I made sure of that."

"And Dr. Jikare Keil?"

"I took care of him personally, sir."

The Minister didn't respond for a moment or two. He just stared at her in stoic silence. Aurora began to feel uneasy.

_Maybe that wasn't the right answer. Is this some sort of test?_

"You took care of Dr. Keil personally?" The Minister asked for clarification. "Even though your orders were to remain unseen during the entirety of the mission?"

"It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, sir," Aurora attempted to explain. "Most of the staff were aliens…"

"That does not matter," the Minister interrupted quietly. "All that mattered was that you follow your orders to the letter, something that you obviously did not do."

The Minister picked up something from his desk. A datapad.

"Keeper filed quite the report on you," he continued as he played with the 'pad. "Apparently this isn't the first time you've disobeyed explicit orders, nor is it the first time that you have engaged in unnecessary brawls. Would you like me to read you the list?"

It was a rhetorical question. The Minister didn't even bother to wait for her response and started to read from his datapad,

"Sithell 26th, at a refueling station on Belsavis you got into a fight with a civilian and killed three people."

_He was overcharging me! Plus, he started pushing first._

"Kaasden 1st, you disobeyed a direct order and picked a fight with a pair of Mandalorians."

_They were in my way. They had it coming._

"Emptad 35th, you threw an Imperial informant out of an airlock."

_He was sneaking around on my ship. How was _I _supposed to know he was an informant?_

"Then today you in-subordinated a Watcher, disobeyed a direct order to remain hidden from the enemy, and willfully cut off your communications with the Intelligence Center. And this is only the very beginning of the extensive list of grievances Keeper has reported against you." The Minister shook his head and laid the datapad on his desk.

"But I'm doing my job!" Aurora exclaimed, totally forgetting proper protocol for the moment. "I'm getting rid of the Empire's enemies…"

"But you are getting rid of them in your own overtly aggressive manner," the Minister snapped back.

He started pacing back and forth behind his desk, still clasping his hands behind his back.

"I do not think you realize precisely what you have accomplished, Twenty-two. Yes, ninety-five percent of all of your missions have been completed successfully, but there is not one objective that you have been sent on when you did not disobey orders, talk back to superiors, and get into unnecessary fights. Do you realize that virtually every time you have returned from a mission, Intelligence has had to send out teams and credits to bribe or brainwash witnesses of your destructive habits into staying silent? Thousands of hours and credits have been wasted – _wasted_ – to keep your identity under wraps because you practically insist on blowing your cover every time you leave Dromund Kaas. That is money, men, and time that should have been spent on more vital tasks besides cleaning up your messes. We had hoped that you would learn to curb your compulsive, aggressive behavior, but it seems that with experience you have only gotten worse. And the Board of Intelligence has unanimously decided that we will no longer condone your actions."

Aurora was so shocked that she couldn't wrap her mind around what the Minister had said. This wasn't a debriefing, and it most certainly wasn't a promotion. This meeting was a telling-off designed to put her back in her place. But it was the Minister's final sentence that was really troubling the girl.

"Are you…_firing_ me?" She asked incredulously.

"At least you catch on well," the Minister replied, halting his pacing so he could sit down.

"But-but what about my success rate? My kill count?"

"Your success rate is peppered with insubordinations and disobedience, and your kill count is only high because you get into petty fights with non-targets," he pointed out harshly.

"But you can't fire me!" Aurora exclaimed, still too shaken to register what was happening to her.

_It's not supposed to happen this way!_

"Really? Then you're in for a mighty big shock," the Minister commented dryly. "Effective immediately, you are removed from Imperial Intelligence completely and will be transferred."

"Transferred?" Aurora was so dazed that she almost didn't hear herself speak. "Transferred where?"

"To the Chiss Ascendancy's Expansionary Defense Force. I was recently informed that Commander Ka'likro'nuruodo of the Defense Fleet is in need of an operative with extensive training in counterterrorism, and I think you will fill the position well," he explained placidly.

Instead of being surprised this time, Aurora found herself getting angry, dangerously angry.

"The Chiss!" She spat disgustedly. "They're _aliens!_ I don't work with scumbag aliens!"

"You do now, Kadis." The Minister fixed his haunting gray eyes on her. "The Chiss are our allies in this war against the Republic, and we will treat them as such. The paperwork has already been confirmed by the Ascendancy. You work for them now, whether you like it or not."

"Please, Minister, can't I have another chance? Just send me on another op, and I swear I'll prove that I'm a good Agent." Aurora felt like she would have willingly groveled if such an action would have any bearing on her superior's decision.

But the Minister simply shook his head.

"It's too late for that, Kadis. You had your chance, two _years_ of chances, in fact. It's time for you to move on. Maybe the Chiss will be able to teach you."

Aurora had a few choice words she wanted to hurl at her former boss, but she held them in check. Lashing out would probably only make her situation worse, though she didn't know how much worse it could get.

"You will find an Ascendancy standard uniform in your quarters," the Minister continued, completely oblivious to his former Agent's raging wrath. "You have two hours to pack your things and report to Platform 13. A shuttle will be there to take you to Csilla."

And it just got worse. She had only arrived on Dromund Kaas half an hour earlier, and now she was leaving again in two hours. But this time she wouldn't be coming back, ever. A departure like this would have been bittersweet for most people, but right now Aurora was too shocked to feel anything but burning rage. The desire to punch the Minister's impassive face in was almost uncontrollable. She squeezed her fists so tightly that she almost felt her nails burrowing through her gloves and into her skin.

_How can you do this to me! After all I've done for you, for the Empire! I hate you!_

The Minister glanced up at the Human again, ticked off that she was still standing there like a statue of pure swirling hate.

"Well you are dismissed, Kadis," he growled.

Aurora didn't deign to salute him or even say anything. She spun on her heel and marched out of his office, seething and burning like a gaping wound. Her body walked towards her quarters on Level Nineteen, but her mind was solely occupied with her lividness. It was bad enough getting told off by the Minister of Intelligence himself, but being fired and transferred to work with slimy blue skinned non-Humans was just insult to injury. Aurora had been angry before but never _this_ incensed.

_"Maybe the Chiss will be able to teach you." No _alien _teaches me anything! You will regret this, Minister. You'll all regret it!_

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'm not sure exactly how often I'll be updating _Fire and Frost_. I'm going to try for a weekly update, but it may end up being once every two weeks. It all depends on my college schedule. Right now I have quite a bit of free time and my imagination is going crazy, but that will likely slow down soon. lol! But please comment and review on _Fire and Frost_ so far! I will take all comments and suggestions into consideration, and I thank you in advance for your reviews. God bless you!


	3. Chapter 2: Welcome to Csilla

**Imperial Transport, Hyperspace**

There was nothing better to exacerbate a bad mood than to subject it to a long, boring ride through hyperspace. Already Aurora had been sitting for four hours straight, and she honestly didn't know how much longer she could take it. She was used to moving, to getting up and doing something productive. But now she was confined in a small Imperial shuttle with nothing to do but stare out of the nearest viewport and watch the blue waves of hyperspace flash by.

Normally Aurora enjoyed marveling at the pretty bluish-purple undulations of hyperspace, but today it just made her sick. The waves reminded her of Chiss with their equally cyan skin, and she wanted to vomit.

_Aliens. Why do they even have to exist?_

For the past four hours the ex-Agent's thoughts had been completely infected with her hate of aliens, of indifferent superiors, of the cruel hand she had been dealt in the game of life. It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. She was supposed to be a Cipher Agent. Her dreams, everything she had worked for, it was all supposed to come true. She wasn't supposed to be transported to some frozen world out in the middle of nowhere to work for aliens. She wasn't supposed to be wearing this stiff alien military uniform with its toe-pinching boots and high collar.

_It's not supposed to be this way!_

A throaty cry of rage escaped her lips, and she swung her fist so hard into her backpack that her hand felt tingly. If Keeper or the Minister or a Chiss had been sitting with her, Aurora was so sure that she would have punched them instead of the pack.

_I'd probably even punch a stranger right now._

But she was alone in the shuttle, except for the pilot. The cockpit, though, was separated from the passenger area by a blast door, and it would have been too much trouble to walk in there and slug the pilot. Even so, it would have been so satisfying to feel a nose breaking under the crushing weight of her knuckles.

So Aurora did the only thing she could really do in her present position: she seethed.

A month after her operative training, Aurora had encountered a Sith apprentice who had deigned to praise her short-fused temper. He had even taught her how to seethe, how to savor her rage and keep building it and building it until she couldn't hold it in any longer. Anger was for unleashing, he had said. It was for punishing those who had hurt you. That was why you had to keep your wrath close and feed it constantly, enjoy feeling it rolling like a torrential storm in your gut.

Even though she usually didn't agree with Sith philosophy, the Agent had welcomed the apprentice's advice and teachings. He had to have only been about twelve, but he was sure one smart kid as far as she was concerned.

_If I had been born Force-sensitive I'm sure the Sith would have appreciated my temper. They wouldn't have gotten rid of me for being "too aggressive," or whatever._

But Aurora had been born a normal Human girl, and now one who was facing a severe life change. True, she was going to Csilla as a counterterrorism operative, doing basically the same sort of jobs that she had done for the Empire, but that wasn't the point. The point was that she was being forced to work alongside and under weird blue creatures with glowing red eyes.

She could have run away. She could have blown off the Minister and the Ascendancy by escaping from Dromund Kaas and going into hiding. For a good few minutes she had been very, very tempted to do just that, but she had come to her senses soon enough. If she attempted to escape she would have probably gotten caught and then executed for treason. Even if she had managed to escape the planet where could she have gone? The Empire would have just sent all sorts of Agents and operatives after her, maybe even a Cipher or two. Aurora was heavily trained in basically every subject known to the galaxy, but even she couldn't hope to last long with Imperial Intelligence hot on her heels. Escaping would have just been delaying the inevitable. Her only other option was to follow through with the Minister's orders, even though doing so was making her sick and angry. The only hope she clung to was that she might one day be able to somehow prove herself to the Empire again, show them that they had been wrong to let her go.

A brief smile tugged at the corners of Aurora's mouth. Having the Empire, particularly the Minister, crawling back to her would definitely be nice, but she was willing to settle for a cold, impersonal holocall informing her that she was wanted back at the Intelligence Bureau immediately.

The really disgusting thing was that in order to get on the Empire's good side again, she would have to deign to rub shoulders with creatures who were merely cruel shams of the Human species. Aurora wasn't planning on ever "buddying up" with an alien, but she wasn't just going to follow them blindly.

_My loyalty is to the Empire. I'm only working with you because you're my tool for getting back into Imperial Intelligence. I'll tolerate you, and you'll be very aware of my feelings for you, Chiss._

Aurora's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the shuttle's intercom clicking on.

"Coming up on Csilla now, ma'am," the pilot's voice flowed through the intercom. "We're dropping out of hyperspace, so you'd better strap in."

Suppressing a sigh, Aurora buckled herself back into her seat. She was quietly glad that the long trip was almost over, but deep down inside she found herself thinking that getting caught for eternity in hyperspace was better than finally arriving to her dreaded alien destination.

The bluish waves of hyperspace began to fade, slowly being replaced by stretched white stars on a pitch black sky. Aurora felt the shuttle groan as it snapped suddenly out of hyperspace. The force pinned her back against her seat, but it only lasted for a brief second.

"And there we go. Welcome to Csilla, ma'am."

In spite of herself, the ex-Agent turned to look out of the nearest viewport at the world before her. Usually holos were never as amazing as looking on the real planet with your own eyes, but that wasn't the case this time. Csilla looked just as icy and uncongenial as the holo in its file. Aurora reflexively crossed her arms close to her chest as though a sharp chill had whipped across her. Why anybody would want to live on a planet that was just one big frozen arctic was beyond her. But Csilla and its nasty weather would soon be her home.

_No, not "home." I'll live here for as long as I have to, but it will _never_ be a "home."_

**Cam'Co Spaceport, Csaplar, Csilla**

Aurora stood with her neck craned back, watching the Imperial shuttle disappear into the thick snowy Csillan atmosphere. The shuttle couldn't remain long on the planet's surface because the drives might freeze over, so the pilot had dropped the ex-Agent off at the nearest spaceport. Supposedly the Cam'Co Spaceport, where she now stood, was named after some famous Chiss or another, but Aurora could care less about their history or whatever.

_I'm here as a counterterrorist, not a historian._

Biting back a sigh, Aurora lowered her eyes from the blustery sky to take in the spaceport around her.

Apparently every city in Csilla was built underground so as to make full use of the warmth generated by the planet's core. Tunnels connected the cities together, though the more adventurous would travel across the Csillan surface on special speeders and descend into the cities via gaping holes that led straight down to the public spaceports. Csaplar, the capitol, didn't deviate at all from that norm.

Even though Csaplar was closer to the core, it was still a much colder environment than Aurora was used to. Blast, she had just come from Hutta. To go from bog heat to tundra freeze was a big change, especially for a girl who didn't particularly appreciate the cold.

_This just keeps getting worse…_

Something thumped quietly on the durasteel floor. Aurora froze reflexively, struggling to keep her gloved hand from reaching for her blaster. The trip to Csilla may have cooled her temper down quite a bit, but she was still ticked enough to shoot something.

_I wonder if Chiss bleed red?_

She crossed her arms over her chest – both to show her boredom and to control her itchy trigger fingers – and turned her head to see who was walking towards her. A group of maybe five or six humanoids were heading her way, but she knew better than to hope to see a real Human face among that crowd. Every member of the group was wearing thick white winter gear from head to foot just like Aurora, though hers was jet black and she wore a black spacer's cap with a heavily tinted flip-down visor instead of the snow caps and hoods that the Chiss sported. At that moment the girl had her rectangular visor flipped down, revealing only her mouth and chin to the elements. Some of the Chiss appeared to be wearing similar albeit transparent visors, but she could still see their blue faces and blood red eyes. Aurora almost shuddered.

The Chiss party halted a few paces in front of Aurora, but they were close enough for her to observe them better. There were six of them, two females and four males, and they were all standing perfectly erect with booted feet together and shoulders thrown back. With postures like that Aurora assumed that they were all military of some kind. Five of them were also carrying blasters in their gloved hands.

The tallest Chiss, the only one without a visible weapon, was at the very front of the group. He clasped his hands behind his back, having to tilt his head down to look the Human in the eyes. Aurora felt her jaw tighten. He was looking down at her, right over his aristocratic cyan nose. She tightened her grip on her backpack's shoulder strap, barely managing to resist the urge to chew him out for looking down at her as though she was chattel or something.

_If anybody's supposed to be looking down at anybody, it's _me_ looking down at _you_…_

"Miss Aurora Kadis." The tall Chiss's voice was low with hints of synthetic pronunciation, hinting that Basic wasn't his first language. "Welcome to Csilla and Csaplar. I am Sergeant Liot'rama'najuudu, personal aide to Commander Ka'likro'nuruodo of the Defense Fleet. Your trip was uneventful?"

Aurora nodded, though inside she felt another layer being added to her sullenness. The Fleet didn't even have the courtesy to send her new boss man himself out here to welcome her. What did she get instead? The Major Domo and his armed escort.

_What is this, Hutta all over again? Maybe they get hospitality genes, or lack thereof, from the Hutts._

"It was good enough," Aurora replied bluntly, shifting her pack higher up on her shoulder jadedly.

But the Sergeant didn't take offense or even look the slightest bit perturbed by her snippy response. All he said was,

"If you would follow me, the Commander is waiting for you."

And, with that, he turned on his white booted heel and walked back the way he had come. Aurora followed behind him and the armed escort fell into formation around her. Her mind instantly flew backwards in time, remembering how she had been brusquely met and escorted to the Minister's office only six or seven hours earlier. The similarity of this situation to the last one made Aurora feel uneasy.

Nonetheless, she didn't let the aliens see her anxiety. Holding herself as straight and as tall as she could without looking absolutely stupid, Aurora followed the Sergeant unerringly through the main complex of the Cam'Co Spaceport. The terminal was completely filled with Chiss, likely thousands of couples, families, and singles moving like blue waves through the massive durasteel hallways. Aurora got a lot of curious and even downright suspicious glances tossed her way as she made her way through this blue sea, but she kept her gaze focused straight ahead. These people could stare at her for as long as they wanted to, but not even the sharpest of gazes would shake her.

_Deal with it, bluesies._

Sergeant Liot'rama'najuudu lead the Human and the escort through the double doors of the spaceport and out into the pickup area. He made a beeline for a white and blue military-style speeder that was humming in the pickup line. Aurora said nothing, simply chucking her backpack into the trunk and sliding into a back seat. One of the two Chiss women sat beside her, watching the Human warily. Aurora scooted closer to the window, setting her visor to reflect in an effort to ignore the silent, leery stares the alien soldiers were throwing her way.

As the speeder's pilot, another male Chiss, revved up the engine and pulled out into the nearest skylane, Aurora focused on the cold underground city below. If she closed her eyes she might have been able to trick herself into thinking she was back on Dromund Kaas, heading back home after another successful assassination or sabotage mission.

But this wasn't Dromund Kaas. This wasn't her home planet, the place where she had been born and raised, the place where her family lived and she had first encountered Imperial Intelligence scouts. This was an alien world, a hostile environment as far as the Human was concerned. Aurora almost despaired for a moment as the buildings of Csaplar flashed by. How long would it be before she was called back to the Empire? How long would she be forced to endure this place and its people?

Then she remembered what she had told herself during the trip to Csilla: these people, even the Ascendancy itself, were her tools to get back into the Empire's favor.

_I won't be here long before the Minister calls me to come back. You just wait and see._

With that final confidence booster, Aurora felt a hard smile twist up a corner of her mouth. Then she settled in and began running over what she would say to Commander Ka'likro'nuruodo when they would finally be introduced.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This particular chapter is a bit of a filler because I wanted to focus solely on a variety of Aurora's thoughts. It's a bit shorter than the other chapters, but that was because I didn't want to reveal too much too early. And I think I've finally decided that I will try to upload a new chapter of _Fire and Frost_ every Saturday, begining not this Saturday but the next (September 1st). With college fast approaching, though, I might fall behind a bit in updating, but I thank you for understanding. Please review and comment! I love hearing suggestions, helpful criticisms, and encouragement, so post away! Thank you!


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